


The Heirloom of Pyralspite

by JotTheDragonScribe



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen, The scalemates are actual dragons. I cannot separate tags on my phone.
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-22
Updated: 2018-04-22
Packaged: 2019-04-26 01:57:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14391798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JotTheDragonScribe/pseuds/JotTheDragonScribe
Summary: The brief story of Pyralspite, the former Grand Judge Of Alternian Dragons, her death, and all those whose lives intertwined with hers.--





	1. Infancy to the Lemonsnout Turnabout

**Author's Note:**

> A late celebration of the thirteenth of April. As well of the first fanfiction I ever posted, on fanfiction.net, about Pyralspite's full (fanon, of course) life story.  
> I remember well, the days when I, 13 at the time I saw that infamous first page, took on the gargantuan challenge of reading Homestuck with rudimentary knowledge of the english language. I skipped page after page, and stared at mostly-gibberish sentences written in teal, because if there was one word I understood, was dragon.

Most fauna native to the planet known as Alternia exhibits an exclusively white pelt, due to the atmosphere and environment. Trolls, the most rational species inhabiting this rather odd place by human standards, largely care not about the scientific details of the beings that so closely interact with them on their nightly lives and would rather be focused on intra-species violence.

Thus most trolls, back in the era when adults lived on the planet, would shrug it off when pondering why some dragons did not have white pelts but rather quite vivid and, on a fully objective opinion, beautiful hides. If it did not get them killed, it was not really their problem, now was it?  
The occasional out-of-the-box thinker might have supplied that they were not native but rather alien, arrived from another planet, another galaxy. Promptly would they be culled, if low-blooded, or shunned, if they rested on the lavish seats that a higher blood grants, for such ludicrous statement.

Yet, they'd be right.

Let us not be so brash. Certainly dragons did not come and go back and forth between Alternia and their homeplanet, that is but a theory, as is most of this specie's history. Most of draconic history has been subjectively speckled by the arrogance and self-importance of the only ones willing to share it, the dragons themselves. Two facts, however, can be stated. That dragons are aligned to different aspects at hatch, such as Void, Space and... Mind. As well, that a dragon's powers derive from these powers. Make your assumptions from this.

Let us skip the parts of dragon history that do not directly affect the story, and skip to the hatch of our subject.  
Contrary to common belief, Pyralspite, hatched Marblescales, from an egg of Almandine, was not the hatch of the 'Alpha' of a thunder of dragons, moreover that dragons did not recognize leaders in such a way. Instead, the dragon who held highest power was the Grand Judge, the one amongst all who made most significant arguments, making one tilt their head, cross their arms, and mumble, in tones of acceptance, to themself, 'I guess'. 

We digress. Pyralspite was hatched with a white pelt, much like the native fauna, making her the target of curious remarks from her peers during her infancy. Young dragons of her species are blind until adulthood, so we can assume it was her name that set our subject in the path of vicious mockery. 

Dragons preffered secluded environments, far from Trolls and the blinding light of day. Yet, old wall carvings tell us that young Pyralspite consistently and blindly flew high into the day sky, seemingly chasing the sun through the day, and would spy on the trolls as they slept, ever so curious about them. 

This rebellious behaviour would be ultimately the reason for the dragons' near extinction. Young Pyralspite managed to lure the native fauna to the refuge of her species. Most were hunted while they slept for their impressive hide, wings and organs. Those who wished to avoid similar fate... Left. Every trace of their existence is erased from all further history, yet they are not declared dead, as is obligation in draconic culture.  
Only a claw-full of dragons stayed, not avoiding the winding paths of fate, rather charging through them with bravado and moxie only a dragon could comprehend.  
Their names are etched in the garnet walls of the caves of eternity, such names as Pucefoot, Berrybreath, Honeytongue, Pumpkinsnuffle, Pinesnort and Pyralspite, still named Marblescales by the time of this sudden development in draconic history.

The oddity of these names is a subject rather sore, that most dragon historians, now with more dignified names, attribute to mediocre translations to Alternian.

On the subject of names, it was not much later, in fact, it was only two sweeps later that Pyralspite would shed her hatch name. The incident leading to this is the story more often retold to young hatchlings, to grubs with dragon lusii, even in the home planet of these dragons. 

One of the dragons who decided to remain, of name Lemonsnout, often subjectively described as carrying an aura of deceit and the smell of lies, was accused of a count of stealing an egg and several counts of food theft. These are all serious crimes in draconic culture.  
Upon being accused by the elder of the group, green-hide whose description is all the remains in the Declaration of death, the yellow-hide would murder the elder in cold blood, severely mangling the corpse.  
In an act of despair, presumably aided by Pinesnort, he continued his massacre of his compatriots to try and erase his tracks from the crime scene, burying himself deeper and deeper into a pit of lies and bloodshed.

Pinesnort, let it be known, did not willingly participate in these acts. Rather, as Lemonsnout's brother, he saw it necessary to aid him, to help Lemonsnout cover his prints.

It was not young Pyralspite who first tracked down the source of the murders, but Berrybreath, who, as is written in several reports, 'consistently demonstrated an ability to track down deceit'.  
Despite the helpful scavenging of Honeytongue and Pumpkinsnuffle this was not sufficient to construct an argument against the fiend, thus Pyralspite decided to blindly charge in, and draw a confession out of the scaled felon, despite the other's severe advise against doing so.

Thus at dawnbreak Lemonsnout, Pinesnort and the involved investigators gathered at mountain cave's cliff, overlooking a forest of which the name of shall not be disclosed.  
Pyralspite, still blind, faced away from Lemonsnout, action that for many generations historians could not decipher due to wrong accounts of her age.  
With the power of her mind alone did the young dragon further drive the criminal into an anguished state. There are several descriptions of how this occurred, all with some divergence from the others, so there is no certainty about what happened.

Invariably present is the tale of how, driven by madness and gloom fate, Lemonsnout attacked Pyralspite, how the pounce made them both fall of the cliff.  
During the fall, the golden one clawed out the eyes of the marble one, reportedly cackling madly. Without as much as a screech of pain, Pyralspite bit an arm of the attacker and broke it with relative ease, and in the pained distraction, released herself from his grip with a complex flight maneuver.

Lemonsnout made no effort to fly away from the rapidly approaching ground, already resigned to his death. Surprisingly, he survived the fall, breaking only his wings. Due to the shock, he remained motionless as Pyralspite landed nearby.

Pyralspite, Marblescales back then as we may have mentioned, opened her eyes for the first time, as she landed, and saw not the ground, trees, sky, sun and Lemonsnout's mangled figure but teal. The colour teal, her blood, flooded her vision and in blind -pardon us the wordplay- rage thrashed around, grabbed the moribund dragon by the neck and snapped it as well, unceremoniously.

Berrybreath and Honeytongue had hurriedly rushed down the mountain slope to aid their ally and end the fight, but instead faced a beserking Marblescales whose eyes, wide open in agony, now turned from teal to a deep shade of red, the "colour of the burning sun itself, flames of vivid judgement climbing the walls of pits of mercilessness", as quoted from Honeytongue's description of the event. It is important to add that he claims that the injury or the realization of her blindness should not have spurred such a reaction from the young dragon.

Pinesnort, accompanied by Pumpkinsnuffle, faced the horrid scene, and confessed to his involvement on the spot, requesting only that they stopped Marblescales.  
She supposedly understood that, and bellowed between gurgling roars, repeatedly, that Marblescales was not her name.  
Marblescales fully renounced her name, and also her aspect of Mind, for the time being.

Due to avoid a greater catastrophe in terms of breaking draconian laws, Pumpkinsnuffle granted her the name of Pyralspite, due to her eyes, and the egg she had hatched from. This seemed to calm the young dragon down.  
In fact, Honeytongue's report claims she stopped entirely, collapsing on the ground, immovable but eyes wide open, breathing still.


	2. Neophyte Redglare

Pyralspite suffered no serious injuries from the incident, aside from the obvious. Due to a dragon's already poor sense of sight, the blindness did not affect her much. Honeytongue and Berrybreath asked her a slew of questions daily, concerned about her mental health. The orange-hide's speciality was in the realm of physical injuries, thus he could draw no conclusions, and the blue-hide merely noted she seemed different.

Never would Pyralspite be Marblescales again, but she believed her behaviour had stabilized upon rejecting her aspect. Others were not of the same opinion.  
In a debate with Pucefoot, who had honed his skills as wordsmith during his hermitry, it was decided that the marble one must seek an activity to prove herself lucid.

Pyralspite, due to her white pelt thus making her seem like a Lusus in the eyes of trolls, decided to take care of a troll grub, an unforeseen choice. One fully viable, seeing that due to her rare signature white scales, she could pass as a- quite odd- lusus. 

No other dragon accompanied her, as their hides could blow her cover, so this event is very much clouded with mystery, moreover that Pyralspite's report is entirely cluckbeastscratch.  
Through verbal retelling of the occurence we can discern that the 'weird-looking-blokes'[sic] manning the 'freakish fetid caverns' [sic] with 'all those unnapetizing troll-headed worms dripping with slime'[sic] were quite shaken at the appearence of such a strange lusus naturae.  
Moreover, they expected her to choose a troll grub of higher blood, but Pyralspite immediately picked a teal-blooded grub, with horns pointed like hers, and a black mane. Some claim Pyralspite herself told that something in the back of her mind told her this nearly-defenseless (in the eyes of a dragon, either way) grub carried the strong aura of a divine judgement with her.

In the dragons naming traditions, the young troll would come to be known Redglare, as all saw her as a dragonling. However the trolls had naming traditions of their own, and the 'weird-looking-blokes'[sic] demanded a proper name. Honeytongue's reports tell us she just repeated the name Redglare, with quite a brazen tone. Due to our subject's inability to properly speak Alternian, the name understood was Latula. Latula Pyrope.  
(Rather, Gllarhtooogrlabaaherrrowbeh, but let us not get into details.)

The young troll showed promise from a very young age, her talent incentivated by the circle of dragons. The troll justice system is very different to Draconian Argumentation, yet some principles remain the same.  
One of Honeytongue's reports, considered by the most cynical historians as a mere diary slab, repeatedly states the thunder's pride in the troll, how Redglare had inherited his methodicalness, Berrybreath's eye for detail and attention, Pucefoot's argument-building skills and her 'Lusus''s ability to enter one's psyche and make them drown in despair. 

There are still significant discrepancies between the two cultures, thus, both Pyralspite and Redglare, as the latter grew up, learnt every bend and twist of the twirling confusion that is Alternian Law System. It is important to mention that in Alternia, there is no such thing as a defense. Whoever is accused of being guilty has no option of presenting any argument supporting otherwise. It is up to the jury to decide if the defendant shall be killed-excuse us, /culled/- or not. The dragon was repulsed by this, even more so when she discovered that one's bloodcolour weighed heftily on whether they survived their trial. Redglare herself has written that she had to study alone due to her lusus' interruptions.

Redglare, as many of her enemies can tell you, was not only knowledgeable about the intricacies of law but also of the arts of war. Despite dragons' love of balance and fair judgement, they too worshipped battle, seeing it as another form of judging one's valor.  
The troll's characteristic cane's dragonhead was sculpted out of an unknown material by Pyralspite herself, and so was the hidden blade in it. The dragon, by far the most violent of all of dragonkind, taught her how to fight with it relentlessly, and by the time Redglare was 7 sweeps old, she was quite skilled with the blade.

Quite skilled, yet never improved. Her merits always lay within her mind's abilities, not her blade's. If she had to fight, she could hold her own against an enemy, and she could always summon her lusus to aid her had she to fight against more. In the words of the more "jelly" [sic] of troll historians, "running to hide between her lusus' wings". Pyralspite desperately tried to teach her further, but upon lack of any real improvement, she could not mantain her strict behaviour, so, resigned, the tutelage softened considerably.

Most reports claim that, despite the marble dragon viewing the troll as a chore at first, she warmed up to her post-haste, and came to treat her as her own dragonling.  
One of Berrybreath's, Pyralspite's closest friend and advisor, rare statements describes that the troll would sometimes be lulled to sleep on the red-eyed dragon's tail, which the dragon would, with uncharacteristic care and caution, move from side to side while wrapped around young Redglare.

As much as we would like to cover Redglare's entire infancy, seeing as she was such a key factor in Pyralspite's life and change in behaviour, we cannot due to sheer amount of accounts on the subject.

Abridged as much as possible, during her younger years, the troll would play along with dragonlings, would eat the same as a dragonling. Frequently would Pyralspite fly with Latula on her back, demonstrating flight maneuvers as one would with a dragonling. Out of her own device, the troll created her own maneuvers. Obviously not for her, for her caretaker. These would involve carrying her, as there were no movements designed for picking a passenger off the ground or fighting alongside one.

Perhaps the most important part of Redglare's education was the protection of her mind, a skill Pyralspite still retained, despite her rejection of her aspect. This would ensure that, depending on the teal-blooded troll's own mind power, her mind was unaccessible, meaning she could not be mind-controlled and her thoughts could not be read. As long as she possessed the willpower to fight against these actions. The dragon was certain her adopted cub (for any troll readers, look up a draconic dictionary) would never reach her level of power, but considering Alternia's vicious culture, she went out of her way to protect Redglare.

In the eyes of dragons, trolls are fragile, weak and small. Young to this existence and ever so innocent to the grand scheme of the universe and those parallel to it. Pyralspite knew there was so much out there to harm the young troll she had raised and, effectively, she could not protect her from all. The marble-scaled dragon knew, whatever what happened, it would be more likely for Redglare to die before her, and yet, she blinded herself to the truth. Preffering to ignore it, rather than accept it.

Upon reaching adulthood, and completing all tests required to enter the profession of legislacerator. From then on, Redglare would spent more time in her actual hive, and Pyralspite in the dragons' caverns, since, now having fully ascertained her recovery, her fellow dragons had elected her Grand Judge.  
The great marble dragon was rarely present in the trials, both sure of her troll's abilites and also due to the fact that she would be unable to fit inside the area reserved for the trial without crushing a handful of trolls or completely undermining the authority of His Honorable Tiranny.

Redglare would visit the caverns frequently, and be greeted warmly everytime. The caverns, in fact, were not far from her hive, but impossible to reach for those inexperienced.  
It was soon before Redglare reached the title of Neophyte, that another case, even if lesser known, soon unfurled.

The betrayal of Pumpkinsnuffle, dragon so close to the infamous Lemonsnout many claim his permanence in the thunder a rookie mistake.  
This fiend's connection to Lemonsnout, and the long-banned Pinesnort was undeniable. Yet, due to their already diminished numbers, and the natural death of the revered Pucefoot, the idea of losing another of their own was one the dragons did not want to face.  
It took the involvement of Redglare for the process to be kickstarted, and for true investigations to be held. As, perhaps, a consolation, Pumpkinsnuffle did cover his tracks, not underestimating his fellow dragons. Furthermore, the entire incident was covered up, which is the main reason why it is not as well-spread as Lemonsnout's. His reasons, process and even actual crime comitted are surrounded by the dense fog of draconic shame and regret.

There are no reports by any dragons for the next two sweeps.

The next account found is, unfortunately, the one of Mindfang's incident.

Neophyte's Redglare target, in this account, is the aforementioned Mindfang, or as she had come to be known among the circle of those closest to Pyralspite, Forsaken.

Redglare sought to catch Mindfang unaware, thus planned to attack her ships during her travels. Therefore, Pyralspite travelled along with her troll, as they could only reach her by air.  
The great marble dragon was able to track the supposed felon easily, if relunctantly, due to the troll's own mindpower. 

A shadow covering the light, Mindfang was indeed caught by surprise. The Grand Judge set fire on several of her ships and with her stare, blinded one of her eyes. Leaving Redglare on Mindfang's boat, Pyralspite, must be said, went to extremes, by breaking the hull of one of her larger ships, the one containing the cobaltblood's own lusus, and with a swift bite swallowing the giant spider.

For the trial, Pyralspite unwillingly left her troll to her own devices, the tealblooded troll stating that she was protected from Mindfang's mind-controlling powers due to the training she was subject to. The dragon flew away to the caverns, with a comment on how brash her troll had become.

Those would be the last words she would speak to Redglare.  
Feeling an itch in the back of her head, like a spider crawling through her brain, Pyralspite decided to confirm the trial was occuring as normal.

Nearly did she freeze in mid-air, realizing the voice of her troll could not be heard, and no longer did she feel the teal cloud that represented her in the dragon's mind's eyes.  
Softly and in a calculated manner, she hovered down, landing in the largest free space she could find in this trance state.  
The lowbloods present, aware of the large, deadly dragon recently arrived in the facilities, making the instant connection that this was Neophyte Redglare's feared lusus, took one of two choices. 

Either run for their lives, most of them decided on, wisely, or carefully remove Redglare from the noose intended for Mindfang, those with empathy for the beast decided on.

Pyralspite could not see. She turned towards the sounds of the trolls hurriedly leaving the premises. Then, faced the sounds of the Tyranny's heavy breathing. For the first time, the dragon realized the extent of her blindness. She, drowning in anguish, chose to decide that no, Latula was not dead, it was something different. Alone in the court (aside from a very uncomfortable certain Honorable Tyranny), the dragon gently nudged the troll with her snout, several times. As if trying to wake her up.

Silently, Pyralspite picked up her corpse with her front paws, and carried it the way back to the caverns.  
During the trip, the marble dragon accepted the aspect of Mind again, but with a darker approach. The Grand Judged placed shields upon shields upon her mind, her consciousness retreating into the darkest abyss of her soul. Into the shadowed crevices of her memory, where everyone was still alive. Where she could not hear her reason anymore, who roared at her that she was behaving like an emotional dragonling.  
Perhaps so.  
She landed on her cave's perch, carefully placed down the troll she had raised.  
Then, she wrapped her tail around the troll, like once she had done, lay down, and remained unresponsive until she was found.


End file.
